This section is intended to provide a background or context to the invention that is recited in the claims. The description herein may include concepts that could be pursued, but are not necessarily ones that have been previously conceived, implemented or described. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated herein, what is described in this section is not prior art to the description and claims in this application and is not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
The following abbreviations that may be found in the specification and/or the drawing figures are defined as follows:    3GPP third generation partnership project    ACK acknowledge    BW bandwidth    DL downlink (eNB towards UE)    DRX discontinuous reception    eNB EUTRAN Node B (evolved Node B)    ECM evolved packet system connection management    EPC evolved packet core    EPS evolved packet system    EUTRAN evolved UTRAN (LTE)    CDM code division multiplexing    FDMA frequency division multiple access    LTE long term evolution    MAC medium access control    MM/MME mobility management/mobility management entity    NACK negative acknowledge    NAS non-access stratum    Node B base station    OFDMA orthogonal frequency division multiple access    O&M operations and maintenance    PDCCH physical downlink control channel    PDCP packet data convergence protocol    PDU protocol data unit    PHY physical    RACH random access channel    RB radio bearer    RLC radio link control    RRC radio resource control    SGW serving gateway    SC-FDMA single carrier, frequency division multiple access    SR scheduling request    TDD time division duplex    TTI transmission time interval    UE user equipment    UL uplink (UE towards eNB)    UTRAN universal terrestrial radio access network
The specification of a communication system known as evolved UTRAN (EUTRAN, also referred to as UTRAN-LTE or as EUTRA) is currently nearing completion within the 3GPP. As specified the DL access technique is OFDMA, and the UL access technique is SC-FDMA.
One specification of interest is 3GPP TS 36.300, V8.6.0 (2008-09), 3rd Generation Partnership Project; Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network; Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (EUTRA) and Evolved Universal Terrestrial Access Network (EUTRAN); Overall description; Stage 2 (Release 8), incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
FIG. 1A reproduces Figure 4-1 of 3GPP TS 36.300, and shows the overall architecture of the EUTRAN system. The EUTRAN system includes eNBs, providing the EUTRA user plane (PDCP/RLC/MAC/PHY) and control plane (RRC) protocol terminations towards the UE. The eNBs are interconnected with each other by means of an X2 interface. The eNBs are also connected by means of an S1 interface to an EPC, more specifically to a MME (Mobility Management Entity) by means of a S1 MME interface and to a Serving Gateway (SGW) by means of a S1 interface. The S1 interface supports a many to many relationship between MMEs/Serving Gateways and eNBs.
The eNB hosts the following functions:    functions for Radio Resource Management: Radio Bearer Control, Radio Admission Control, Connection Mobility Control, Dynamic allocation of resources to UEs in both uplink and downlink (scheduling);    IP header compression and encryption of the user data stream;    selection of a MME at UE attachment;    routing of User Plane data towards the Serving Gateway;    scheduling and transmission of paging messages (originated from the MME);    scheduling and transmission of broadcast information (originated from the MME or O&M); and    measurement and measurement reporting configurations to provide mobility and scheduling.
FIG. 1B reproduces Figure 4.3.2-1 of 3GPP TS 36.300, and shows the control plane protocol stack. As is described in 3GPP TS 36.300, the PDCP sublayer (terminated in the eNB on the network side) performs the functions listed for the control plane in subclause 6 of 3GPP TS 36.300, e.g., ciphering and integrity protection and the RLC and MAC sublayers (terminated in the eNB on the network side) perform the same functions as for the user plane. Of more interest herein, the RRC (also terminated in the eNB on the network side) performs the functions listed in subclause 7 of 3GPP TS 36.300, e.g., broadcast, paging, RRC connection management, RB control, mobility functions and UE measurement reporting and control. The NAS control protocol (terminated in the MME on the network side) performs, among other things, EPS bearer management, authentication, ECM-IDLE mobility handling, paging origination in ECM-IDLE and security control.
Another specification of particular interest to the RRC protocol layer is 3GPP TS 36.331, V8.4.0 (2008-12), 3rd Generation Partnership Project; Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network; Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (EUTRA); Radio Resource Control (RRC); Protocol specification (Release 8), also incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
Currently the E-UTRAN specifications specify that whenever the UE needs to make an UL transmission it is required to request UL resources either by using a SR, if the PDCCH is configured, or by initiating a random access procedure.
As is also currently specified in 3GPP TS 36.331, the RRC (the UE) should perform all needed activities within a certain pre-defined time Reference may be made to R2-090820, 3GPP TSG-RAN WG2 Meeting #64-bis, Jan. 12-16, 2009, Qualcomm Europe, “RRC processing delay”, which is a change request (CR) for sub-clause 11.2, “Processing delay requirements for RRC procedures” of 3GPP 36.331. FIG. 1C herein reproduces the proposed Figure 11.2-1 from R2-090820 and is an illustration of the RRC procedure delay. FIG. 1D herein reproduces a Table from R2-090820 and shows the value of N for various RRC procedures. Note that the particular given values are subject to change.
As is stated, the UE performance requirements for RRC procedures are specified in the Table, reproduced in FIG. 1D, by means of the value N, where N is equal to the number of 1 ms subframes from the end of reception of the E-UTRAN→UE message on the UE physical layer up to when the UE shall be ready for the reception of the UL grant for the UE→E-UTRAN response message, with no access delay other than the TTI-alignment (e.g., excluding delays caused by scheduling, the random access procedure or physical layer synchronization).